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Muslim Academy

Injustice sociale - 0 views

muslim-academy.com/njustice-sociale-et-terrorisme

Injustice sociale

shared by Muslim Academy on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Muslim Academy on 05 Dec 12
     
    Le terrorisme est mauvais. Il devrait être condamné en toutes circonstances. Le terrorisme pourrait prendre la forme d'un chrétien radical tuant un docteur d'avortement, un homme faisant sauter une construction pour exprimer le mécontentement envers le gouvernement américain, ou le meurtre de Musulmans radical au nom de Dieu. Le 7 juillet 2005, des douzaines de banlieusards de Londres ont été tuées quand quatre bombes ont explosés dans le système de transport collectif de Londres. Comprenez s'il vous plaît que je ne ferme pas les yeux sur ces attaques. Ce sont des atrocités horribles qui ont tué des civils innocents. Le terrorisme n'est jamais le moyen approprié pour lever la voix contre l'injustice sociale, mais dans la recherche pour mettre fin au terrorisme, je veux jeter un coup d'oeil à ce que deux des criminels des attentats à la bombe de Londres ont dit dans leurs vidéos des jours avant les attaques.
Argos Media

Cuba ve con inquietud un acercamiento demasiado rápido a EE UU · ELPAÍS.com - 0 views

www.elpais.com/...Tes

Cuba US Cuban Embargo Armando Hart

shared by Argos Media on 06 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Las autoridades de La Habana ven con inquietud la posibilidad de que EE UU levante "demasiado pronto" la prohibición que impide a los ciudadanos norteamericanos visitar Cuba. Al tiempo que se desea y se aprecia como una tabla de salvación en estos momentos de crisis, el fin de la veda al turismo estadounidense es percibido como un reto, con un elevado potencial desestabilizador en el terreno político e ideológico, según observadores y diplomáticos.
  • Obama ha firmado ya la ley de presupuestos, con una enmienda que permite que los cubanoamericanos realicen visitas familiares una vez al año (hasta ahora, por disposición de Bush, solo podían viajar a la isla una vez cada tres años).
  • Sin embargo, se especula con la posibilidad de que antes de la Cumbre de las Américas, que se realizará en Trinidad y Tobago entre el 17 y el 19 de abril, el presidente de Estados Unidos se descuelgue con un gesto unilateral hacia Cuba y elimine totalmente las restricciones a los viajes de cubanoamericanos y a las remesas que pueden enviar a la isla.
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  • Esta medida, que sería sobre todo un "gesto" de Washington hacia América Latina, opuesta radicalmente al embargo norteamericano, afectaría a un millón y medio de cubanoamericanos.
  • Es precisamente aquí donde está el problema. Mucho antes de que ganara Obama, el dirigente histórico de la revolución Armando Hart dijo claramente: ''Si cumple su promesa [de aliviar el embargo], nacerá una nueva etapa en el combate ideológico entre la revolución cubana y el imperialismo. En ella (...) será necesario el diseño de una nueva concepción teórica y propagandística acerca de nuestras ideas y su origen''. Y añadió: ''Una amplia migración con distintos objetivos puede venírsenos encima y para ello debemos prepararnos culturalmente''.
  • En realidad, el reto es doble. El turismo, con ingresos brutos de unos 2.000 millones de dólares y 2.350.000 visitantes anuales, es el segundo aportador de divisas al país, después de los servicios médicos y educacionales a Venezuela y otros países, calculados en 6.000 millones.
  • El turismo supone más ingresos que las exportaciones de azúcar, níquel y tabaco juntas y Cuba necesita ese dinero. Diversos estudios calculan que el primer año del levantamiento de la prohibición podría viajar a Cuba un millón de turistas norteamericanos, y hasta tres millones anuales en los años siguientes.
Argos Media

Israeli military occupation 'severely compromises Bethlehem' | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...israel-army-bethlehem-un

UN Israel Palestine Bethlehem Israeli Settlements Avigdor Lieberman

shared by Argos Media on 07 May 09 - Cached
  • The Israeli military occupation around Bethlehem is severely restricting its growth, undermining its economy and compromising its future, according to a UN report.The combined effect of Israeli annexation, the West Bank barrier, settlements, settler bypass roads, closed military zones and Israeli nature reserves, has left only 13% of the 660 sq km Bethlehem governorate available for Palestinian use, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.
  • While there are about 175,000 Palestinians living in the Bethlehem area, there are now at least 86,000 Israelis also living there in 19 settlements, and their number is growing, even though settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law. Two-thirds of the governorate is under full Israeli security and administrative control.
  • The barrier around the Bethlehem area, part concrete, part steel, is still being built, but when finished will seal off the city itself from east Jerusalem and prevent growth to the north and west. On the western side of the barrier about 64 sq km will be isolated, home to 21,000 Palestinians living in some of the most fertile agricultural land in the area. The Palestinians there will face reduced access to trading markets and health and education services.
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  • In Nu'man, one of the villages the UN says is "living in limbo", the situation is particularly dire. The village is surrounded on three sides by Israel's West Bank barrier and on another by the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. The village entrance is blocked by an Israeli checkpoint to anyone other than Nu'man residents. Permits are not given for new homes in the village, and the younger generation is being forced out. Israel annexed Nu'man to Jerusalem after the 1967 war, but never gave its people Jerusalem residency.
  • Israel's hardline foreign minister, ­Avigdor Lieberman, lives in Nokdim, one of the Jewish settlements in the Beth­lehem area, some way to the east of Israel's barrier.
Pedro Gonçalves

Foreign Policy: The Rise of Kim Jong-Un - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...cms.php

North Korea Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-nam Chang Song-taek

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 02 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Jang (director of the KWP's Administrative Department, which oversees much of North Korea's security apparatus) had shifted his support to Kim Jong-un in light of Kim Jong Il's "special affection" for his third son and out of consideration for his own future political power.
  • The development of a collective leadership centered on Jang appears to have emerged out of the recent meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly. Some analysts point to the NDC, of which Kim Jong-un is now reportedly a member, as the platform through which the succession will be carried out, much as the KWP was Kim Jong Il's platform. In addition to Jang, the NDC is now populated with powerful military and security officials with ties to Jang, including vice chairmen Kim Yong-jun and O Kuk-yol and members Chu Sang-song (minister of public security) and U Tong-juk (deputy director of the State Security Department). Many think this collective leadership, which probably extends beyond the NDC to the party as well, will provide the support network for a dynastic succession. In this scenario, Kim Jong-un would be the public face of North Korea, while Jang led behind the scenes.
  • When the succession will be made public is a critical question. Some Pyongyang watchers speculate that it will be attached to an auspicious date in North Korean history. Many point to April 2012, which would mark the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. Of course, the health of Kim Jong Il, which has appeared to worsen in recent months, will probably drive the timing of this announcement.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea 'is producing plutonium' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8017898.stm

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation Nuclear Weapons Russia Sergei Lavrov UN

shared by Argos Media on 25 Apr 09 - Cached
  • North Korea has started to reprocess spent fuel rods at its nuclear plant, says the country's state media. The reprocessing is a possible move towards producing weapons grade plutonium and comes after Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket in April.
  • "The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated 14 April," North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying.
  • The official said the reprocessing would "contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defence in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces".
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  • Pyongyang's announcement came only hours after the UN imposed sanctions on three companies it said had supported North Korea's controversial rocket launch, as well as updating the list of goods and technologies already banned.
  • The country is already thought to possess enough reprocessed plutonium for between six and eight nuclear weapons - so in the immediate term the announcement does not significantly alter the strategic balance, our correspondent says.
  • North Korea had already partially dismantled its nuclear reactor - the source of material for a 2006 atomic test. But it now says it is reprocessing remaining spent fuel rods, which experts say could provide material for at least one more nuclear bomb.
  • The sanctions mark the first concrete steps against Pyongyang since the UN officially condemned the launch.
  • North Korea's Deputy UN Ambassador Pak Tok Hun said the decision was "a wanton violation of the United Nations charter". "It is the inalienable right of every nation and country to make peaceful use of outer space," he said. "That is why we totally reject and do not recognise any sort of decision which has been made in the Security Council."
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has been in Pyongyang in an attempt to persuade the North to return to the nuclear talks, said earlier that sanctions were "not constructive".
  • The UN Security Council council unanimously condemned North Korea's rocket launch on 13 April, saying it was a cover for a long-range missile test and as such contravened a 2006 resolution banning such tests.
Pedro Gonçalves

Israel threatens to overthrow Abbas over Palestinian statehood bid | World news | guard... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...li-minister-threatens-abbas-un

Israel Palestine Avigdor Lieberman Palestinian Authority

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Israel should topple the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, if he presses ahead with a request for recognition of the state of Palestine by the United Nations general assembly in two weeks' time, the hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has urged.In a draft paper distributed to the media, Lieberman argued that overthrowing the Palestinian leadership was Israel's only viable option, faced with the certainty of an overwhelming vote in support of the Palestinian bid."A reality in which the United Nations recognises a Palestinian state according to a unilateral process will destroy all Israeli deterrence and completely harm its credibility," the paper said.
  • Lieberman's extreme stance comes as the Israeli cabinet is considering a range of punitive measures it could take in response to the vote, expected on 29 November. These include the full or partial annulment of the 1993 Oslo Accords, financial penalties and an acceleration of settlement expansion.The minister of strategic affairs, Moshe Yaalon, warned the Palestinians would pay a "heavy price" if they submitted a resolution seeking "non-member state" status at the UN general assembly. It would be a "flagrant breach" of the Oslo Accords, which provided for a limited measure of self rule for the Palestinians, he told army radio.Another government minister, Gilad Erdan, called for the immediate annexation of all Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
  • The Israeli foreign ministry sent a diplomatic cable on Sunday to all Israeli representatives across the globe warning that the Palestinian resolution was a "clear violation of the fundamental principle of negotiations".It continued: "The adoption of the resolution will give Israel the right to re-evaluate previous agreements with the [Palestine Liberation Organisation] and consider cancelling them partially or completely, and would make progress in the peace process more difficult in the future."
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  • According to a government source, the Israeli cabinet has discussed a number of possible measures, but has taken no concrete decisions. Among a "toolbox" of actions under consideration are:• full or partial annulment of the Oslo Accords, under which the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established• withholding tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the PA• cancellation of permits for thousands of Palestinian labourers to work in Israel• withdrawal of travel privileges for senior PA officials• acceleration of building programmes in West Bank settlements• unilateral annexation of the main Jewish settlement blocks.
  • Lieberman's draft paper proposed Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state on provisional borders encompassing around 40% of the West Bank in exchange for the Palestinian leadership dropping its approach to the United Nations.
  • The UnS is also expected to impose punitive measures in response to a vote in favour of Palestinian statehood at the general assembly. The US Congress froze $200m (£126m) of aid to the Palestinians in response to their bid for full membership of the UN last September. Despite the decision later being overturned, the money has still not been released.
Pedro Gonçalves

Analysis - The power behind the throne in North Korea | Reuters - 0 views

uk.reuters.com/...th-power-idUKTRE7BJ0HK20111220

North Korea Jang Song-thaek

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Real power in North Korea now probably belongs to a coterie of advisers following the death of Kim Jong-il, not his youngest son, an untested man in his 20s who has been anointed the "Great Successor."
  • These advisers will decide whether North Korea launches military action against South Korea to strengthen the succession around Kim Jong-un -- or seeks a peaceful transition.
  • The most powerful adviser is Jang Song-thaek, 65, brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il.
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  • "Jang has played a considerable role during Kim Jong-il's illness of managing the succession problem and even the North's relations with the United States and China," said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies."Jang is in overall charge of the job of making it formal for Kim Jong-un to be the legal and systematic leader by pulling together the party and the military."
  • Jang had the full backing of his brother-in-law, who named him to the National Defence Commission in 2009, the supreme leadership council Kim Jong-il led as head of the military state.That appointment was part of a flurry of moves Kim Jong-il made following a stroke in 2008 which probably brought home the reality that, unlike his father at his death in 1994, he was unprepared for a trusted son to take over.
  • The commission has been the pinnacle of power in North Korea and which Kim had used to preach his own version of political teaching called Songun, or "military first."
  • The naming of Jang as a vice chairman of the commission effectively catapulted him to the second most powerful position in the country.It also put him in line to become caretaker leader of the dynastic state in the event Kim was unable to orchestrate a gradual transition of power and the grooming of Jong-un.
  • Jang, who also holds the humble title of a department chief in the ruling Workers' Party, disappeared from public for two years before returning in 2006, widely believed to have been purged then rehabilitated as part of a power struggle involving backers of Kim's second and third wives.He is considered a pragmatist who earned Kim Jong-il's trust because of his understanding of domestic politics and economic policy.
  • Few observers believe either Jang or his wife will try to push the junior Kim out and grab power for themselves."That would kindle a power struggle that will get out of control, and they will know better than to do that," said Yang of the University of North Korean Studies.
  • With the military already very powerful, there appears to be little risk of a coup or the kind of regime change seen in the Arab world this year.
  • Ri Yong-ho, the rising star of the North's military and its chief of staff, is ranked fourth on the list of funeral committee officials, an indication of the power he wields not only in the army but as Kim Jong-il's confidante in domestic politics.Ri, despite being on good terms with Jang, provides an ideal balance to the power of Kim's brother-in-law.
  • Parliament is headed by Kim Yong-nam, a loyal but passive figurehead who analysts say poses no threat to the transition
  • "The North Korean leadership is united," said Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul. "They understand that they should hang together in order not to be hanged separately."
  • Jang, his wife Kim and Vice Marshal Ri are expected to make sure Jong-un survives as the third generational leader and that North Korea holds together at least through the centenary of Kim Il-Sung's birth in 2012.
Alphonse Scaf

Chine Les grues sacrilèges de Kachgar - 0 views

www.lemonde.fr/...752607.html

Oeigoeren Kachgar zijderoute China aardbevingen Moslims

shared by Alphonse Scaf on 21 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Alphonse Scaf on 21 Mar 10
     
    "Dans l'antique cité de la Route de la soie, joyau architectural, les maisons centenaires sont rasées une à une, au prétexte de lutter contre les risques sismiques, et les habitants exilés dans des HLM. Les populations ouïgoures estiment que leur civilisation est menacée"
Pedro Gonçalves

Report: NKorea's Kim using gifts to win support - Yahoo! News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...nkorea_kim_jong_il_s_successor

North Korea Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-un

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 25 Jun 09 - Cached
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their loyalty to his youngest son when he put the 26-year-old in charge of the country's powerful spy agency, a report said Wednesday.
  • Jong Un was serving as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission, the country's highest post, one currently held by his father, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported last weekend.
  • Wednesday's Dong-a Ilbo report said Kim ordered senior officials at the State Security Department in March to "uphold" Jong Un as head of the agency. Kim told the officials to "safeguard comrade Kim Jong Un with (your) lives as you did for me in the past," the mass-market daily said.
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  • Five luxury cars, each worth some $80,000, were given as gifts to the officials, it said. The paper did not say which cars were given, but Kim has long been known to favor Mercedes and French wine as gifts to ensure his inner circle's loyalty.
Pedro Gonçalves

North Korea warns Seoul of nuclear war following UN sanctions | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...north-korea-un-nuclear-war

North Korea South Korea US Nuclear Weapons

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 15 Jun 09 - Cached
  • North Korea has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic weapons programme in defiance of new UN sanctions.Today's Rodong Sinmun, a state-run North Korean newspaper, claimed the US has 1,000 nuclear weapons in South Korea. Another state-run publication claimed that America had been deploying nuclear weapons in Japan as well.
  • North Korea "is completely within the range of US nuclear attack and the Korean peninsula is becoming an area where the chances of a nuclear war are the highest in the world", the Tongil Sinbo said.
  • A spokesman at the US military command in Seoul dismissed the claims as "baseless", saying Washington had no nuclear bombs in South Korea. US tactical nuclear weapons were removed from the country in 1991 following the cold war.
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  • Yesterday, Pyongyang threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships under the new sanctions approved by the UN security council on Friday.
  • In yesterday's statement, Pyongyang said it has been enriching uranium to provide fuel for its light-water reactor. It was the first public acknowledgment that the North is running such a programme in addition to its known plutonium one.
Pedro Gonçalves

US destroyer on course to search suspected North Korean arms ship | World news | The Gu... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...north-korea-ship-weapons-us

US North Korea Nuclear Proliferation

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 20 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Tension was growing in the Pacific today as the US navy prepared to intercept a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying weapons in defiance of a United Nations ban.
  • The US navy has been tracking the Kang Nam since it left a North Korean port on Wednesday.
  • It would be the first ship to be intercepted since the UN last week imposed sanctions on North Korea as punishment for conducting an underground nuclear test last month. The sanctions ban the import and export of nuclear material, missiles and all other weapons other than small arms.
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  • A destroyer, the USS John McCain (named after the father of the Republican senator and failed presidential candidate, who was an admiral), was awaiting orders to intercept the ship off the Chinese coast. The UN sanctions allow the US to hail a North Korean ship and demand to be allowed to conduct a search, but not to forcibly board it.
  • If the North Koreans refuse to allow a US crew to search the ship, the US could order it into the nearest port. Failing that, the John McCain could closely follow the ship until it reaches port. The US would then be entitled to demand, under the UN sanctions agreement, that that country inspect the ship.
  • Reflecting heightened tension, the US yesterday began moving radar systems and ground-to-air missiles to Hawaii. The Pentagon said it fears Pyongyang could test-fire an intercontinental missile in the direction of Hawaii over the next few weeks in retaliation for the UN sanctions.
  • North Korea has said a forcible search would be regarded as an act of war.
  • Gates has ordered the deployment of anti-ballistic missiles to the islands. The THAAD (Theatre High-Altitude Area Defence) missiles do not carry warheads but are intended to collide with incoming missiles. He has also directed that an array of floating radars be positioned round Hawaii, to track incoming missiles.
Argos Media

End Palestinian demolitions in Jerusalem, UN tells Israel | World news | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...estinian-jerusalem-demolitions

Israel Palestine Jerusalem Nir Barkat Israeli Settlements

shared by Argos Media on 01 May 09 - Cached
  • The United Nations has called on Israel to end its programme of demolishing homes in east Jerusalem and tackle a mounting housing crisis for Palestinians in the city.
  • Dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem are demolished each year because they do not have planning permits. Critics say the demolitions are part of an effort to extend Israeli control as Jewish settlements continue to expand
  • Although Israel's mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, has defended the planning policy as even-handed, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in March described demolitions as "unhelpful". An internal report for EU diplomats, released earlier and obtained by the Guardian, described them as illegal under international law and said they "fuel bitterness and extremism". Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later unilaterally annexed it, a move not recognised by the international community.
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  • The UN said that of the 70.5 sq km of east Jerusalem and the West Bank annexed by Israel, only 13% was zoned for Palestinian construction and this was mostly already built up. At the same time 35% had been expropriated for Israeli settlements, even though all settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.
  • "Throughout its occupation, Israel has significantly restricted Palestinian development in east Jerusalem," the UN report said. It said 673 Palestinian structures had been demolished in the east between 2000 and 2008. Last year alone 90 structures were demolished, leaving 400 Palestinians displaced, the highest number of demolitions for four years. Similar demolitions are carried out regularly by the Israeli military across the West Bank.
  • "Recent events indicate that the Jerusalem municipality will maintain, and possibly accelerate, its policy on house demolition," the UN report said. "Israel should immediately freeze all pending demolition orders and undertake planning that will address the Palestinian housing crisis in east Jerusalem."
  • Last week, Barkat, who won election five months ago, rejected international criticism of demolitions and planning policy as "misinformation" and "Palestinian spin. There is no politics. It's just maintaining law and order in the city," he said. "The world is basing its evidence on the wrong facts.The world has to learn and I am sure people will change their minds."
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Angry N Korea quits nuclear talks - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7997481.stm

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation UN

shared by Argos Media on 14 Apr 09 - Cached
  • North Korea has vowed to walk out on international talks to end its nuclear programme, and said it would restore its disabled nuclear reactor.
  • Pyongyang described the UN statement as an "unbearable insult".
  • The North said it would never again take part in the talks, adding that it would restore its partially disabled Yongbyon nuclear reactor - the fuel source for its 2006 atomic test.
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  • The government-controlled North Korean news agency said the action was in response to a UN statement condemning the recent rocket launch and agreeing to tighten existing sanctions.
  • China, Pyongyang's closest ally, called for "calm and restraint" from all sides, while Russia and Japan urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table.
  • The move comes hours after the 15-member Security Council unanimously condemned the long-range rocket launch on 5 April.
  • The council also ordered the UN Sanctions Committee to begin enforcing both financial sanctions and an existing arms embargo imposed after the 2006 tests.
Argos Media

North Korea to boycott nuclear weapons talks after UN condemns rocket launch | World ne... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...th-korea-boycott-nuclear-talks

North Korea Nuclear Proliferation UN

shared by Argos Media on 14 Apr 09 - Cached
  • North Korea said today it will boycott international talks on its atomic weapons programme in protest at the UN security council's condemnation of the country's rocket launch.
  • The country also said it would restart nuclear facilities it had begun to dismantle under an international deal.
  • "We have no choice but to further strengthen our nuclear deterrent to cope with additional military threats by hostile forces," the statement said
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  • The statement was the country's first reaction to the security council's unanimous condemnation yesterday of the 5 April launch, which Pyongyang says sent a satellite into space but the US and others say tested long-range missile technology.
  • The statement also said that the North "will never participate in the six-party talks" because other members "publicly denied" the spirit of the negotiations – which it said were respect of mutual equality and sovereignty - in the name of the UN security council.
  • The North said it will not be bound by any agreement signed under the talks and will restore nuclear facilities it has been disabling and will resume operating them.
  • Under a 2007 six-party deal, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear complex – a step toward its ultimate dismantlement – in return for 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions.
  • North Korea also said it will "actively consider" building a nuclear light-water reactor and reprocess spent fuel rods at a pilot atomic power plant.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Clinton presses UN over N Korea - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7986856.stm

North Korea UN Hillary Clinton US

shared by Argos Media on 07 Apr 09 - Cached
  • US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the UN needs to take a strong position in response to North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket
  • "It's a provocative act that has grave implications," Mrs Clinton told reporters.
  • "North Korea ignored its international obligations, rejected the unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations."
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  • Washington and Tokyo are seeking a strong response, but Beijing and Moscow have called for restraint.
  • Susan Rice, the US envoy to the UN, called Pyongyang's move a "clear-cut violation of [resolution] 17-18", while her Japanese counterpart said Tokyo was seeking a "clear, firm and unified" response.
  • There was no general agreement at the council on whether North Korea was in breach of the resolution, let alone on whether it should be punished, our correspondent says.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN appoints Gaza war-crimes team - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7981538.stm

Israel War Crimes

shared by Argos Media on 03 Apr 09 - Cached
  • The UN has appointed South African judge and former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone to lead a fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip.
  • Mr Goldstone will investigate alleged violations of international law during the recent conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants.
  • The Israeli government has in the past refused to co-operate with UN human rights council investigations, including one led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is not clear whether Israel will co-operate with the new investigation. "This committee is instructed not to seek out the truth but to single out Israel for alleged crimes," said Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He said the council was a discredited body.
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  • Mr Goldstone will lead a four-member team, which also includes experts from Pakistan, Britain, and Ireland, in investigating "all violations of international humanitarian law" before, during and after the Israeli campaign in Gaza that ended on 18 January.
  • Mr Goldstone is a former UN chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He is also a former judge at the South African constitutional court. He is also on the board of governors at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Mr Goldstone said he was "shocked, as a Jew", to be invited to head the mission.
Argos Media

Human Rights Watch reveals extent of Israel's phosphorus use in Gaza | World news | gua... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...israel-white-phosphorus-gaza

Israel War Crimes White Phosphorus Human Rights Watch

shared by Argos Media on 26 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Israel's military fired white phosphorus over crowded areas of Gaza repeatedly and indiscriminately in its three-week war, killing and injuring civilians and committing war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today.In a 71-page report, the rights group said the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus artillery shells in populated areas of Gaza was not incidental or accidental, but revealed "a pattern or policy of conduct".
  • "In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, a senior Human Rights Watch researcher. "It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safe smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died."
  • Human Rights Watch found 24 spent white phosphorus shells in Gaza, all from the same batch made in a US ammunition factory in 1989 by Thiokol Aerospace. Other shells were photographed during the war with markings showing they were made in the Pine Bluff Arsenal, also in America, in 1991.
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  • The group said it found no evidence that Hamas fighters used Palestinian civilians as human shields - a key Israeli claim - in the area at the time of the attacks it researched.
  • On the same day, at about 7.30am, Israeli artillery shells began falling near the main compound of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, where 700 civilians were sheltering. UN staff made repeated telephone calls to the Israeli military asking them to stop but, at about 10am, six shells hit the compound, three of which contained white phosphorus. The warehouse was hit, causing at least $10m of damage, and it continued to burn for 12 days.The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said at the time that "Hamas fired from the UNRWA site". But the UN has always denied there were any militants in the compound or firing from the compound.In another case, on 17 January, an artillery shell that had already discharged its white phosphorus hit a UN school in Beit Lahiya, where 1,600 civilians were sheltering. It killed two brothers in a classroom and severely injured their mother and cousin.
Argos Media

U.N. Official, D'Escoto, Faults U.S. and West on Iran and Sudan - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...18nations.html

UN Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann Iran Sudan

shared by Argos Media on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the president of the General Assembly, lashed out at the West in general and the United States in particular on Tuesday, saying that Iran’s president had been maligned and that the indictment of Sudan’s president was racist.
  • His comments drew a rebuke from several Security Council ambassadors and even from the 33-member Latin American bloc that had nominated him. “He confuses his personal opinions sometimes with those of the General Assembly,” said Heraldo Muñoz, the ambassador from Chile.
  • Mr. d’Escoto was speaking at a news conference to mark the end of a world tour. He said that he had been struck by the “great respect” shown to Iran by its neighbors and that its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had been unfairly “demonized” in the West.
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  • He said the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on war crimes charges was lamentable because it would undermine Darfur peace talks. A request by the African Union and the Arab League for the Security Council to suspend the indictment for a year should be respected, he said. The indictment “helps to deepen a perception that international justice is racist” because the case is the third to be brought against Africans, Mr. d’Escoto said.
  • Ruhakana Rugunda, the Ugandan ambassador and a Security Council member, said, “I do not consider that decision racist.”
  • Mr. d’Escoto supported Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s criticism of the United States for falling about $1 billion behind in its United Nations dues. Describing the United States’ attitude toward the Council, Mr. d’Escoto said, “ ‘You either give me the green light to commit the aggression that I want to commit, or I shall declare you irrelevant.’ ” Mark Kornblau, the spokesman for the United States Mission, said, “It’s hard to make sense of Mr. d’Escoto’s increasingly bizarre statements.”
  • Mr. d’Escoto tends to draw support from countries at odds with Washington, while Western nations accuse him of being stuck in a leftist, Sandinista mind-set. Mr. d’Escoto, a Roman Catholic priest, was Nicaragua’s foreign minister from 1979 to 1990.
Pedro Gonçalves

David Miliband challenged over ministers' differing explanations for Iraq war decision ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...avid-miliband-iraq-war-inquiry

Iraq War UK David Miliband

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 08 Mar 10 - Cached
  • At the start of the foreign secretary's evidence to the Chilcot panel, Sir Roderic Lyne, a member of the inquiry panel, said it had heard "three rather different explanations as to why we took military action against Iraq in 2003".Tony Blair emphasised the need to impose regime change on Iraq, Lyne said. But Jack Straw, the foreign secretary at the time of the war, stressed the importance of dealing with Iraq's presumed weapons of mass destruction, Lyne said.And Gordon Brown, when he gave evidence on Friday last week, said he supported the war because he thought the will of the international community had to be enforced.
  • In his evidence Blair said the inquiry should consider what would have happened if the Iraq war had not taken place. He said that an Iraq still led by Saddam Hussein, competing with Iran to acquire WMD and support terrorism, could be an even greater threat today than Iraq was in 2003.
  • Miliband went on: "The authority of the UN would have been severely dented. If, in the hypothetical case you are putting, we had marched to the top of the hill of pressure and marched down again without disarming Saddam Hussein, that would really have been quite damaging [to the ability of the UN to work together].
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  • "People in the region will respect those who will see through what they say they favour, even though they disagree with it, and would say to me: 'You have sent a message that when you say something, you actually mean it,'" Miliband said.
  • He also insisted that Britain would not have gone to war if it had been known that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction."If there was convincing evidence there were no WMD, there would have been no UN resolution and ... no [parliamentary] vote."
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